


Shooting Stars

by Okadiah



Series: The Mrs. Chen Chronicles [6]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Contemplative, Star Gazing, just a nice relaxing little story, mrs. chen and venom are bros of the highest order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21651901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okadiah/pseuds/Okadiah
Summary: Mrs. Chen stargazes and Venom asks her why.
Relationships: Mrs. Chen & Venom
Series: The Mrs. Chen Chronicles [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1172045
Comments: 63
Kudos: 386





	Shooting Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Here I am for the final Mrs. Chen piece (at least until after any more Venom movies) that I wrote forever ago. I hope you enjoy it!

It was a chilly night out, but Mrs. Chen didn't mind, not when she was wrapped up in an old blanket with her feet tucked into warm slippers.

Her lawn seat creaked as she leaned back with a mug of hot tea cradled in her hands, and she smirked where Eddie and her husband sat in old chairs of their own, snoring into the night after several drinks and some animated debate that had led to more drinks and more good times. It always amazed her that her husband had taken a liking to Eddie, and then to Venom when the alien hadn't been able to keep himself quiet when one dinner conversation had switched to who’d eaten the most exotic foods.

Well, even she had to admit that the alien had them all beat.

But tonight had been dull in comparison to all the usual action Eddie and Venom and the city usually experience. It was a quiet night, and after a long day on both her husband’s and Eddie’s side, they’d both crashed the moment the city began to quiet. Mrs. Chen wasn’t surprised she was now the only one still studying the sky, waiting. It was a mundane thing. She knew that. With the world the way it was now, something like this was little more than an afterthought.

It didn’t matter to her though. Maybe it was just because she was getting older, but she didn’t care much for all the action of the world. Stargazing – or attempting to – was enough for her.

**"Why are you staring up at the sky?"**

Mrs. Chen had been so lost in her thoughts, so surrounded by the momentary peace that she’d forgotten Venom could be awake even when Eddie was asleep. Seemed she wasn’t as alone as she’d thought.

"Didn't Eddie tell you?" Mrs. Chen asked, surprised that the boys had come here without knowing why she’d invited them when Venom shook his head. Then again, there was no denying these two were friends. Perhaps that was all it had taken to get them here. She settled back in her seat. "There are supposed to be shooting stars tonight. It's been all over the news, and we have a roof." Mrs. Chen shrugged. "It was to watch them, although I'm not surprised my husband and Eddie took it as an opportunity to drink."

**"You wanted to watch meteors burn in the atmosphere?"** Venom asked before he glanced up. **"It must be difficult for you with all the light pollution."**

"Yes, well, I was never under any illusion that I'd get to see very much of it," she replied. "But I'd hoped to see at least one."

**"But why?"** the alien asked. **"It happens every night. What's so special about tonight?"**

"Nothing, I guess," Mrs. Chen replied quietly. "Besides more of them being visible. It’s hard enough seeing them on a regular night. I have a better chance during a meteor shower.”

Venom hummed, still clearly confused, and she could only smirk. Of course the mundane would be lost on an _alien_.

**“Why does it matter, though?”** Venom finally asked.

She smiled, curling her hands tighter around her tea.

"When I was a girl I used to look up at the stars," Mrs. Chen admitted. "Every night, through my little window. I'd wait until everyone was asleep and I'd look up at the sky and imagine what it was like out there." She fluttered her fingers at the dark sky above. "I'd wonder if there were actually aliens."

**"Why wonder?"** Venom asked curiously before he lifted his head with pride. **"Of course there’s other life out there. I've seen more species than you can imagine."**

"Well I know that now, of course," she said, swatting at the alien goo lightly with the back of her hand. "But I was a girl, and this was before Earth was filled with enhanced people and heroes and villains, and who knows what else?" Mrs. Chen sighed, pulling the blanket closer around her shoulders. "When I was very young, Venom, I imagined that _I_ might one day see what was up there myself."

Venom didn't say anything, waiting. She smiled softly to herself.

“But … I grew up. I got married. Moved here, to America, settled down and got the crazy idea to open a grocery store. Made friends with an _alien_.”

Venom all but preened.

“So I never got to see for myself what is up there,” she finished, looking back up at the sky. “That is the way of life.”

**“Do you regret it?”** Venom asked. **“You could have done what you wanted. You still could.”**

Mrs. Chen laughed at him. “What? Leave Earth now and see the stars? I’m fine with my feet on the ground, thank you. I’m quite happy where I am.”

**“But you still watch the stars,”** the alien pressed. **“Doesn’t it bother you?”**

“Not at all,” she said with quiet pride. “It was a girl’s dream, and I am older now, Venom. I found different dreams.”

**“Then why watch at all? I don’t understand.”**

“Because,” she said. “Sometimes it’s nice to remember what that was like.”

Venom huffed, again confused by the simple human answer, and she couldn’t help the amusement which ripped through her chest that she’d mystified an _alien_. Her, a simple Chinese woman who ran a grocery store. _Her_.

Content, she left him to puzzle out the meaning and once again turned her eyes skyward. The light pollution really was too much. She’d be lucky to see even one shooting star, but just one would be worth it. That was all she needed. That was all she wanted.

Mrs. Chen startled when Venom gently dropped atop her head, his gooey form conforming to the curve of her skull where he hung limp there. Glancing upward, she eyed him curiously.

"Venom, what are you doing?"

**"Would you like to see the stars?"**

Mrs. Chen's eyebrows rose quizzically. "See the stars?" She snorted. "You said so yourself. There's too much light pollution. I can't see anything. There are no stars to see."

**"That's with your weak, human eyes,"** Venom replied, shifting to look down at her. **"But I can see them. All of them. And I can help you see them too."**

Her eyes widened, her mouth opened once. Twice. Then she pressed her lips closed because a third time was simply ridiculous.

“You can really help me see them?”

**“Yes,”** Venom agreed. **“It will feel strange to you since you’ll have to let me bond with you a little. But I can help you see them.”**

“And you don’t mind doing that?” she asked. “You won’t eat me either?”

Venom laughed, his teeth glinting in the light as every one of them was revealed in his smile.

**“Eat a favorite?”** the black goo said. **“Never.”**

A favorite? Well, look at her, simple Chinese woman who ran a grocery store. A favorite of an alien. She couldn’t help but be charmed.

“All right, then,” she said, settling back in her seat, eyes slanted upward. “Go ahead. You have my permission.”

Venom slid over the top of her head, flowing over her eyes but no further. He was right. The sensation of him bonding with her, even just the little he was, was jarring. She could feel more, more than she should. She could feel Venom, and she could even sense Eddie on the other end, distant. An anchor for the alien whereas she was nothing more than light touching an outpost.

**_Open your eyes._ **

“Now, none of that,” she chided, even as she opened her eyes. “If you’re going to speak to me, you speak with real words.”

Venom’s rolling chuckle existed both in her mind and in her ears.

**“Whatever you want, Mrs. Chen.”**

She didn’t respond because all she could do was look at the vast sky as if she were seeing it for the first time in her life. There was no cloudy film of light and dust to block her gaze. The black of space was darker than it had ever been in her life, closer and clearer and all but impossible.

And _so many stars_.

They were bright, brilliant flecks of light filling every spot she placed her gaze. It was like art, art that had always been there for her if only she could see. Entire galaxies danced before her eyes, swaths of stars creating trails for her to follow, too many stars to count in a lifetime, in several lifetimes. She’d known there were scores of them, of course, but like this ….

Like this, she could see them. It was almost like she could see all of them. Every single one which had ever blazed into existence.

Her eyes watered, and she swallowed around the tightness in her throat.

“Thank you, Venom,” Mrs. Chen whispered.

He didn’t respond, not immediately but when he did, she felt the fondness that wafted over from him to her through the small bond they’d made. He settled more easily on her head as he looked up at the stars with her, oddly content. Lights were streaking across the sky now. The meteor shower was starting. The sky streaked with dazzling brilliance that took her breath away.

**“You’re welcome, Mrs. Chen.”**

And they sat there and watched the stars shoot by, and then watched the universe settle into peace afterward, and then well into the night.


End file.
